1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device, and more particularly relates to a surface mount type of light emitting device that is compact and lightweight.
2. Background Information
Light emitting devices that are compact, have good sensitivity, and have light emitting elements with high brightness and high output have been developed and put to use in various fields in recent years. Because of their compact size, low power consumption, light weight, and other advantages, such light emitting devices have been used, for example, for light sources in portable telephones and liquid crystal backlights, as light sources for various kinds of meter, and as various kinds of read-out sensor.
A light source used for a backlight, for example, needs to have a thin construction so that the device in which it is used can be made more compact and lightweight. Therefore, the light emitting device used as the light source must itself be compact in size, and to this end a variety of light emitting devices have been developed in a configuration called a side view type (for example, JP-2006-24345-A).
A side view type is generally configured such that an opening for releasing light is formed in a side face of a package, a light emitting diode chip is mounted on the bottom face of the package, and part of a lead frame is taken as an external terminal from the inside of the package to the outside.
Reductions in the size of side view light emitting devices have mainly been in the form of height reductions, and therefore methods for strengthening a thinner package have been studied as the packages themselves have been becoming thinner (for example, JP-H09-298263-A).
However, if the package itself is made thinner, the low strength of the package may cause it to bend or chip, and this lowers the yield.
Also, a package is formed by performing injection molding, compression molding, or the like, but a phenomenon called a short shot can occur in which the molding material does not reach all the way into the corners of the mold cavity and the cavity is not completely filled.